The International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce is one of the three largest defence industry meetings in Europe, after the London and Paris trade fairs. As many as half of Łukasiewicz’s institutes will take part in it, presenting world-class technologies.
This is the 31st edition of MSPO. Last year’s fair was attended by 614 exhibitors from 33 countries, whose exhibitions took the total of 29,657 m2 of exhibition space. The organizers hosted 60 foreign delegations from 39 countries and the number of visitors amounted to about 25,000 people. The fair was supported by 346 journalists from 13 countries, which resulted in 10772 publications in the press and nationwide portals. Therefore, it is a serious event and Łukasiewicz prepared for it very carefully.
Three Łukasiewicz exhibitions
At the MSPO fair, 11 Łukasiewicz institutes will exhibit their achievements, i.e. as many as half of our organization, including nine institutes (Łukasiewicz – WIT, Łukasiewicz – GIT, Łukasiewicz – IMN, Łukasiewicz – IMPiB, Łukasiewicz – IPO, Łukasiewicz – PIT, Łukasiewicz – IMiF, Łukasiewicz – ŁIT, Łukasiewicz – IEL) at a common stand of 100 m2 (Hall D, stand D-63) and Łukasiewicz – ILOT and Łukasiewicz – PIAP at individual stands. All three stands will be located next to each other, creating an extensive exhibition. Actually, three exhibitions with the “Ł” letter in the logo.
Combat drones – a current topic
The most spectacular exhibit at the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation stand is the HAASTA unmanned system, designed and created in response to the real needs of the battlefield. The design was developed in cooperation with Eurotech and was based on the experience of combat operations from the last few years. HAASTA is an innovative UAV system with a hybrid drive used (depending on the version), among others, for observation, cargo transport, photogrammetry, distant reconnaissance, diversion or combat against other drones.
The system was constructed in terms of penetration through anti-aircraft defense, operation in the depths of the enemy group and the performance of reconnaissance or air-diversion tasks. The system can also be used to confuse air defense means, also operating in a swarm. The aircraft presented at MSPO is a fighter version, which is a response to the challenges of the modern battlefield.
Due to the specificity of the fair, the narrative about military applications of HAASTA will prevail. However, that’s not all because Łukasiewicz’s drone can be used for civil purposes, including monitoring long sections of infrastructure.
HAASTA is also a technology demonstrator for modern solutions designed at Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation, which can also be seen at the Institute’s stand. These include: acoustically optimized off-satellite navigation systems, thermoplastic enclosures reflecting electromagnetic radiation and control systems based on artificial intelligence.
The HAASTA drone is one of Łukasiewicz’s candidates for the Defender Award, the idea of which – to quote the organizers – is to award “products distinguished by the originality and innovation of technical and technological thought, operational values and favourable economic indicators.”
Combat robots also on wheels
At this year’s Kielce air, the main theme of the Łukasiewicz – PIAP stand will be the use of heavy combat robots in the activities of Armed Forces. For the first time, the PIAP HUNTeR combat robot will be presented together with the remotely controlled ZMU-03 armament module. Smaller mobile robots will also be included in the offer presented at MSPO. The PIAP HUNTeR robot will be presented along with the 320-kg PIAP IBIS pyrotechnic robot cooperating with it. The smaller system can be used as an observation support thanks to the head with a day-night camera and a thermal imaging camera. The robots transmit a radio signal to each other, extending the operational range of the platforms.
During the fair, the latest version of the PIAP FENIX backpack robot specially designed for the needs of the Police Special Operations Unit of the Republic of Korea will also be presented for the first time this year. Among other things, these robots went to the recently opened Łukasiewicz showroom – PIAP in Seoul.
Rockets with Łukasiewicz inside
The ongoing war in Ukraine showed the usefulness of the Grom and Piorun hand-held anti-aircraft systems which were massively used by Ukrainian soldiers. An inseparable, although completely invisible from the outside, elements of these missiles include the power sources of their control systems. The thermally activated batteries used there were developed at Łukasiewicz – Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals.
Batteries used to power anti-aircraft missile electronics must withstand very harsh conditions: overload during launch and manoeuvring of the rocket, exposure to different temperatures and, in addition, they must provide the right supply current in fractions of seconds, even if they have previously spent years in storage. It is not surprising that such batteries are produced only in a few countries of the world and Łukasiewicz – IMN is the only manufacturer of such cells in our region.
Łukasiewicz autumn fairs
As we mentioned above, as many as half of Łukasiewicz’s institutes will appear at MSPO, so the number of technologies presented significantly exceeds the possibilities of description in this article. However, since the defence industry is an important element of the Łukasiewicz Research Network portfolio, we will write more about it in the summary of our trade fair presence. Especially since September and October are the second peak of the fair season in Poland, the subject of our exhibitions will return. In addition to MSPO, Łukasiewicz will appear in September at the ENERGETAB fair in Bielsko-Biała (12-14.09, 6 institutes) and in Gdańsk at the TRAKO fair (19-22.09, 3 institutes). In October, the “Ł” stand will be available at POLEKO in Poznań (17-19.10, 6 institutes) and at Warsaw Industry Week in Nadarzyn (24-26.10, 13 institutes). We hope that our presence at the fair will result in contacts, projects and implementations, which is what we like the most at Łukasiewicz.
